Nicholson & Lee, eds. The Oxford Book of English Mystical Verse. 1917.=20 =20
106. Rabbi Ben Ezra=20 By Robert Browning (1812=961889)=20 =20 GROW old along with me! =20 The best is yet to be, =20 The last of life, for which the first was made: =20 Our times are in His hand =20 Who saith =91A whole I planned, 5=20 Youth shows but half; trust God: see all, nor be afraid!=92 =20 =20 Not that, amassing flowers, =20 Youth sighed =91Which rose make ours, =20 Which lily leave and then as best recall?=92 =20 Not that, admiring stars, 10=20 It yearned =91Nor Jove, nor Mars; =20 Mine be some figured flame which blends, transcends them all!=92 =20 =20 Not for such hopes and fears =20 Annulling youth=92s brief years, =20 Do I remonstrate: folly wide the mark! 15=20 Rather I prize the doubt =20 Low kinds exist without, =20 Finished and finite clods, untroubled by a spark. =20 =20 Poor vaunt of life indeed, =20 Were man but formed to feed 20=20 On joy, to solely seek and find and feast: =20 Such feasting ended, then =20 As sure an end to men; =20 Irks care the crop-full bird? Frets doubt the mawcrammed beast? =20 =20 Rejoice we are allied 25=20 To That which doth provide =20 And not partake, effect and not receive! =20 A spark disturbs our clod; =20 Nearer we hold of God =20 Who gives, than of His tribes that take, I must believe. 30=20 =20 Then, welcome each rebuff =20 That turns earth=92s smoothness rough, =20 Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! =20 Be our joys three-parts pain! =20 Strive, and hold cheap the strain; 35=20 Learn, nor account the pang; dare, never grudge the throe! =20 =20 For thence,=97a paradox =20 Which comforts while it mocks,=97 =20 Shall life succeed in that it seems to fail: =20 What I aspired to be, 40=20 And was not, comforts me: =20 A brute I might have been, but would not sink i=92 the scale =20 =20 What is he but a brute =20 Whose flesh hath soul to suit, =20 Whose spirit works lest arms and legs want play? 45=20 To man, propose this test=97 =20 Thy body at its best, =20 How far can that project thy soul on its lone way? =20 =20 Yet gifts should prove their use: =20 I own the Past profuse 50=20 Of power each side, perfection every turn: =20 Eyes, ears took in their dole, =20 Brain treasured up the whole; =20 Should not the heart beat once =91How good to live and learn?=92 =20 =20 Not once beat =91Praise be Thine! 55=20 I see the whole design, =20 I, who saw Power, see now Love perfect too: =20 Perfect I call Thy plan: =20 Thanks that I was a man! =20 Maker, remake, complete,=97I trust what Thou shalt do!=92 60=20 =20 For pleasant is this flesh; =20 Our soul, in its rose-mesh =20 Pulled ever to the earth, still yearns for rest: =20 Would we some prize might hold =20 To match those manifold 65=20 Possessions of the brute,=97gain most, as we did best! =20 =20 Let us not always say =20 =91Spite of this flesh to-day =20 I strove, made head, gained ground upon the whole!=92 =20 As the bird wings and sings, 70=20 Let us cry =91All good things =20 Are ours, nor soul helps flesh more, now, than flesh helps soul!=92 =20 =20 Therefore I summon age =20 To grant youth=92s heritage, =20 Life=92s struggle having so far reached its term: 75=20 Thence shall I pass, approved =20 A man, for ay removed =20 From=20the developed brute; a God though in the germ. =20 =20 And I shall thereupon =20 Take rest, ere I be gone 80=20 Once more on my adventure brave and new: =20 Fearless and unperplexed, =20 When I wage battle next, =20 What weapons to select, what armour to indue. =20 =20 Youth ended, I shall try 85=20 My gain or loss thereby; =20 Leave the fire ashes, what survives is gold: =20 And I shall weigh the same, =20 Give life its praise or blame: =20 Young, all lay in dispute; I shall know, being old 90=20 =20 For note, when evening shuts, =20 A certain moment cuts =20 The deed off, calls the glory from the grey: =20 A whisper from the west =20 Shoots=97=91Add this to the rest, 95=20 Take it and try its worth: here dies another day.=92 =20 =20 So, still within this life, =20 Though lifted o=92er its strife, =20 Let me discern, compare, pronounce at last, =20 =91This rage was right i=92 the main, 100=20 That acquiescence vain: =20 The Future I may face now I have proved the Past.=92 =20 =20 For more is not reserved =20 To man, with soul just nerved =20 To act to-morrow what he learns to-day: 105=20 Here, work enough to watch =20 The Master work, and catch =20 Hints of the proper craft, tricks of the tool=92s true play. =20 =20 As it was better, youth =20 Should strive, through acts uncouth, 110=20 Toward making, than repose on aught found made; =20 So, better, age, exempt =20 From=20strife, should know, than tempt =20 Further. Thou waitedst age; wait death nor be afraid! =20 =20 Enough now, if the Right 115=20 And Good and Infinite =20 Be named here, as thou callest thy hand thine own, =20 With knowledge absolute, =20 Subject to no dispute =20 From=20fools that crowded youth, nor let thee feel alone. 120=20 =20 Be there, for once and all, =20 Severed great minds from small, =20 Announced to each his station in the Past! =20 Was I, the world arraigned, =20 Were they, my soul disdained, 125=20 Right? Let age speak the truth and give us peace at last! =20 =20 Now, who shall arbitrate? =20 Ten men love what I hate, =20 Shun what I follow, slight what I receive; =20 Ten, who in ears and eyes 130=20 Match me: we all surmise, =20 They, this thing, and I, that: whom shall my soul believe? =20 =20 Not on the vulgar mass =20 Called =91work=92, must sentence pass, =20 Things done, that took the eye and had the price; 135=20 O=92er which, from level stand, =20 The low world laid its hand, =20 Found straightway to its mind, could value in a trice: =20 =20 But all, the world=92s coarse thumb =20 And finger failed to plumb, 140=20 So passed in making up the main account; =20 All instincts immature, =20 All purposes unsure, =20 That weighed not as his work, yet swelled the man=92s amount: =20 =20 Thoughts hardly to be packed 145=20 Into a narrow act, =20 Fancies that broke through language and escaped; =20 All I could never be, =20 All, men ignored in me, =20 This, I was worth to God, whose wheel the pitcher shaped. 150=20 =20 Ay, note that Potter=92s wheel, =20 That metaphor! and feel =20 Why time spins fast, why passive lies our clay,=97 =20 Thou, to whom fools propound, =20 When the wine makes its round, 155=20 =91Since life fleets, all is change; the Past gone, seize to-day!=92 =20 =20 Fool! All that is, at all, =20 Lasts ever, past recall; =20 Earth changes, but thy soul and God stand sure: =20 What entered into thee, 160=20 That was, is, and shall be: =20 Time=92s wheel runs back or stops: Potter and clay endure. =20 =20 He fixed thee mid this dance =20 Of plastic circumstance, =20 This Present, thou, forsooth, wouldst fain arrest: 165=20 Machinery just meant =20 To give thy soul its bent, =20 Try thee and turn thee forth, sufficiently impressed. =20 =20 What though the earlier grooves =20 Which ran the laughing loves 170=20 Around thy base, no longer pause and press? =20 What though, about thy rim, =20 Skull-things in order grim =20 Grow out, in graver mood, obey the sterner stress? =20 =20 Look not thou down but up! 175=20 To uses of a cup, =20 The festal board, lamp=92s flash and trumpet=92s peal, =20 The new wine=92s foaming flow, =20 The Master=92s lips aglow! =20 Thou, heaven=92s consummate cup, what need=92st thou with earth=92s wheel? 180=20 =20 But I need, now as then, =20 Thee, God, who mouldest men; =20 And since, not even while the whirl was worst, =20 Did I,=97to the wheel of life =20 With shapes and colours rife, 185=20 Bound dizzily,=97mistake my end, to slake Thy thirst: =20 =20 So, take and use Thy work! =20 Amend what flaws may lurk, =20 What strain o=92 the stuff, what warpings past the aim! =20 My times be in Thy hand! 190=20 Perfect the cup as planned! =20 Let age approve of youth, and death complete the same! =20- posted
18 years ago